I inquired what they wanted sharply enough, and one of them answered immediately that they wanted my father.

He turned toward me, of course, as he spoke, and I recognized him as a stone-mason, going among his comrades by the name of Shifty Dick.

He bore a very bad character for everything but wrestling, a sport for which the working men of our parts were famous all through the county.

Shifty Dick was champion, and he had got his name from some tricks of wrestling, for which he was celebrated.

He was a tall, heavy man, with a lowering, scarred face, and huge hairy hands--the last visitor in the whole world that I should have been glad to see under any circumstances.